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Friday, March 5, 2010

"This month a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, is slated to consider a proposal to ban all commercial trade of the Northern bluefin, Thunnus thynnus, grouping it with megafauna superstars such as the white rhino and the Asian elephant. Japan imports about 80 percent of the total bluefin catch in the Atlantic and Mediter ranean, even as those stocks have plummeted to such paltry levels that many scientists speculate that the fish could be headed for extinction.
Never before has such a commercially important animal been subject to an international trade ban, and proponents have braced for furious opposition. To qualify for a complete trade ban, CITES requires that the population of a species must have declined to less than about 20 percent of its historic population size or have suffered from an extremely high recent rate of decline. And although it is no simple task to measure the total size of a population that wanders from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Mexico over its decades-long life span, recent scientific committees organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) agree that the Northern bluefin meets the criteria."

This situation shows what happens when selfish and ignorant members of the human race or selfish groups of humans think they can do anything they want to in our world. Overfishing the Northern bluefin to the brink of extinction, will only damage the already frail balance of nature in the world's oceans.

"The United States has now calling for a ban on the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, hoping to save the species prized for sushi."
"Atlantic bluefin tuna are also notable because of their incredibly high market value, which is largely driven by the demand for bluefin tuna sushi."
“The major reason it’s difficult to deal with the Atlantic bluefin is that it becomes a question of would you like this fish or a new car,” Powers said.
"Indeed, bluefin tuna have been known to fetch prices of $40,000 and higher per fish, particularly in the key market of Japan."
"The prospects for the possible recovery of Atlantic bluefin tuna look grim, ...Currently, the United States is not able to find enough fish to meet its relatively low yearly catch quota, leading some to suggest that the Eastern Atlantic stocks have alerady been greatly depleted. The stocks in the Western Atlantic and Mediterranean are not much better off, and the European Union — which is trying to expand catch quotas — is currently combating various NGOs that promote conservation."

"Bluefin Tuna " have fallen drastically, declining in the Western Atlantic by 80 percent from 1970 until the year 2009.This is why the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are considering a proposal to ban all commercial trade of the Northern bluefin"

According to the website: http://www.eol.org/pages/223943 , " overfishing throughout their range has driven their numbers to critically low levels. Some populations of bluefin tuna are thought be extinct and others are critically endangered."
"Compared to other fish, the bluefin take a relatively long time to reach maturity and grow slowly as juveniles. Because of their slow growth rates, it takes longer to detect population changes and to identify overfishing, which .... exacerbates the danger to this species." source: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/scitech-news/2007/09/26/popular-sushi-fish-at-risk-of-overfishing/ Instead of opposing a ban on Bluefina Tuna why isn't the Government of Canada addressing the key aspect of this situation: the overfishing of this fish species due to the desire of the Japanese people to consume sushi which is made from the Bluefin tuna? In the article, "The Deadliest Catch: A Proposed Trade Ban Could Take Bluefin Tuna off the Menu", which you can read at the following website: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-deadliest-catch, it is stated that "Japan imports about 80 percent of the total bluefin catch in the Atlantic and Mediter­ranean, even as those stocks have plummeted to such paltry levels that many scientists speculate that the fish could be headed for extinction." If the Japanese position in this matter is going to be that "They will not comply if a ban is imposed on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, (source:http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10016700 ), who is going to prevent the Japanese from fishing the bluefin tuna into extinction? If scientists in the United States indicate that "the 2008 ICCAT stock assessment of West Atlantic bluefin tuna created two scenarios (low recruitment and high recruitment) regarding the spawning biomass (the amount of fish in the population that are able to reproduce) of the stock. The low recruitment scenario resulted in a current population estimate that is 57% of the target level, while the high recruitment estimate was less optimistic at only 14% of the target level. If, as these statistics suggest, the United States is also overfishing the Bluefin Tuna, then what steps are other Governments and people of this world going to ake to ensure the behavior of the Americans is not going to be allowed to be continued in the future, in order to preserve the existence of the Bluefin tuna in the World's oceans? source: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/atl_bluefin_tuna.htm

Why has the news media indicted that the Canadian Government seems to be leaning towards opposing a trade ban on the Bluefin Tuna? Concerning citizens of Canada, such as myself, who believe that species of life such as the Bluefin tuna have just as much right to live in this World as we humans do,want the Federal Government of Canada and other governments to address this serious issue, concerning the Bluefin Tuna. We want you to state publically that the interests of the Bluefin tuna species are the most important consideration in this matter, not the interests of fisherman in Canada or in other countries (such as Japan and the United States), which have shown through their behavior that they cannot act responsibly in their behavior , by overfishing the Northern Bluefin Tuna to the brink of extinction!

Thoughts worth thinking about

"Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives."-Sidney Madwed

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every woman and man present their views without penalty, there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.- Albert Einstein Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. - Leo Buscaglia

A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world. - Mohammed

Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. -Albert Einstein

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Ghandi

The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves. - Helen Keller

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person. - Dr. David M. Burns

Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures. -His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. -

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity. -George Bernard Shaw

Ego's trick is to make us lose sight of our interdependence. That kind of ego-thought gives us a perfect justification to look out only for ourselves. But that is far from the truth. In reality we all depend on each other and we have to help each other. The husband has to help his wife, the wife has to help the husband, the mother has to help her children, and the children are supposed to help the parents too, whether they want to or not.-Gehlek Rinpoche Source: "The Best Buddhist Writing 2005 pg. 165

The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence of all things and events---that the world beyond the skin is actually an extension of our own bodies---and will end in destroying the very environment from which we emerge and upon which our whole life depends.

Alan Watts(1915 - 1973)

Source: The Book:On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Vintage) Page: 9..10

One human being, one village, one city, or even one country can no longer live entirely on its own. Competitiveness - the desire to be the first, the best, the foremost, and only one - has simply become outdated as a "value." This desire may have been useful in the past. The concept of evolution describes a process from dependence toward independence, ultimately resulting in interdependence.

Frank Petter Source:The Spirit of Reiki (Shangri-La Series),Page 7

Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others' happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace -- anxiety, doubt, disappointment -- these things are definitely less. In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense.What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness. Dalai Lama.

Source: Ethics for the New Millennium:His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Page: 62

"We can judge the heart of a (hu)man by his or her treatment of animals."-Kant"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights - that is the way of the whole human being!" (Abraham Lincoln "Complete Works")

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it."-Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not that humans and non-humans are identical... but the lack of understanding that led to the slave trade is the same lack of understanding many people have about animals today. When slaves were brought over from Africa, many people believed they were not humans, that they didn't have feelings. Many people believe that primates and other animals don't have feelings, too, but they do."- Jane Goodall

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."-

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Sadly, we Humans have not heeded these warnings! :

"If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect." -Jacques Yves Cousteau
"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future."-
Marya Mannes

Why we need sharks in the oceans and waterways of our World

"The Killing of Sharks is the biggest ecological time bomb we're going to face pretty soon.We have to understand that Sharks are the most abundant top predator on this planet over 100 pounds, so that tells you something.Nature created them for a reason.Now Human beings,they don't care if we kill 100 million, (If) we kill 200 million.so what? You know?That Sharks a nuisance,that shark is a good shark. let's kill them all.But if we kill them all,We destroy all food chains of an entire marine ecosystem and well, the majority of our oxygen comes from the Ocean,so we should be more careful."Dr. Erich Ritter shark biologist, quoted in the book, "Shark Water".